Another Euro Road Trip

[neilbardsley]

We are off around Europe again. This time it's our 15th anniversary trip. I think its also about the time we went on our first DDK trip to CLM? We are now in Utrecht and had a very good lunch. A very interesting chat with our Uber driver, from Chad. My first time chatting to someone from there. I've met many Nigerians. Anyway, appears they share a love of spicy food. He said he has to take hot sauce to dinner parties to enjoy the food.

Utrecht is a busy but interesting city which we hope to explore more tomorrow. Next is Germany, Poland, Czech, Austria, France and Belgium. All towns and cities we haven't visited before.

We still haven't relaxed yet. Work has been super stressful recently thanks to Pres T but I will stay away from politics.

Plus, our dog with a heart condition, has stopped eating and is vomiting. She has had one visit to the vet and another one soon. It's quite stressful to manage remotely.

The car is running super. Very smooth and idling nicely but ... On the last couple of charges of the battery it has taken the conditioner a while to get to full charge. I had accidentally put it on the 12v charge for 2 hours a month or two ago. I had my backup battery out, on the worktop fully charged, but decided not to bring it! Anyway, hot starting is taking longer than I want. I stupidly cut out on a country road and nothing happen when I turned the key. It only took 2 seconds to flag someone down and then the car started on it's own. That happening in a remote area isn't ideal. My suspicion is the battery isn't holding car well. 150 eur spent and hopefully a new battery will be joining us in Hanover. I was wondering what challenges this trip would bring!

After 4.5 hours yesterday today was 3 hours from Bruges. Starting with wonderful Belgian roads. Lined by trees. Via Damme. Note made for a proper visit next time we are in Bruges. Then with some fast motorways.

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[Hugo 356]

Safe & reliable trip Neil

[Bootsy]

Have a good one Neil - looking forward to updates

[anglophone1]

Excellent stuff Neil - would you like me to pop along and do an after- dinner speech for you both?
C

[neilbardsley]

Clive, I'm not sure we can afford your fee!

This evening we showed how rubbish we are at other languages. (Ps the Dutch are amazing). We found somewhere to eat which had board games. I selected one with English on the outside but, of course, it was in Dutch. We used Google Translate to play! The game was called New School Old School. However, some of the questions didn't need translation. If you see Posh, Baby, Ginger, Sporty and Scary in the question I think you can get the answer?

However, for a real test of Old School knowledge. Who was the male romance lead opposite Alicia Silverstone in Cluesless! (I have to sadly admit I knew the answer to that one).

Back to cars. Got some good advice, on hot starting, from 356 expert Dave Jones. Anyone that has ever been on the 356 registry will know how generous, this Welshmen living in the US, is with his time and knowledge. He may also be the only person to have driven his 356 with an oxygen tank and mask when he was having some health issues!

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[KS]

Safe travels (and, yes, Bruges is wonderful!)...

[misteralz]

Paul Rudd. (I'm only just in my 40s.)

[greeny27rs]

I think I may caught a glimpse of you Neil.
I am on way back from Essen!
Nick

[neilbardsley]

First proper issue! Fan belt melted! Replaced but the back up, back up is the wrong size so no back up now. Anyone one know of a supplier in Germany so we can sent to our Berlin hotel (not stop)?

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[Lightweight_911]

.

I've used Maria Habeck (MH Teile) for Porsche parts many times with excellent results - here's a link to the 356A fan belt on their website :

https://www.mhteile.com/en/p/porsche-co ... -912160026

.

[neilbardsley]

Thank you Andy. Two belts ordered!

The hot starting problem persists. Mrs B had to push me backwards to jump start the car after fitting the belt. Really weak turn of the engine. However, the engine temperature was over 240f at this point. Then we crawled into Hannover 50-60 to cool down a bit and the temperature was about 190. After we parked i tried a test restart and it fired instantly. Also in the morning it started on the 2nd crank of the engine. any chance my relay fuse near the starter is expanding under the heat? Starter motor was built 6k ago??

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[neilbardsley]

Mrs B watching watching a master at work!?

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[neilbardsley]

Trouble Sleeping tonight.

This is a statue in Utrecht of Tuus Van Lier. Who took the fight during WW2 to the German's.

The next photo is our guide introducing a music venue that was taken from the city by the local people.

Appears it was a building that was empty and bgt for investment but the local people decided to use it. Not completely sure how I feel about that but Zed Zeppelin, amongst others, played here.

https://dub.uu.nl/en/depth/truus-van-li ... r-murderer



Ps the fan belts are already in shipped status while we had to cancel the battery order from Friday as it hadn't been processed so had no chance of getting to Hannover in time.
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[Ian Comerford]

When I lived in Germany for a few years I bought a lot of stuff from Mittelmotor in Bochum. They were always easy to deal with and knew our cars really well. If you struggle to get the parts they aren’t too far off your route
https://www.mittelmotor.de/racing/de/webshop

[misteralz]

I think I've mentioned them before, but Alpo in Haarlem are excellent. They do speak English so worth a call to see if they have a six volt battery in stock. Haarlem is maybe forty minutes back the way from where you are now, but worth the detour for peace of mind? Especially if you head to Hamburg from there via the Afsluitdijk...

0031235360330 is their number. If you say Al the Scotsman from Bergen with the 964 sent you, you might even get a chunky discount.